Who has to comply with the EUDR: operator, trader, SME

The two roles

• Operator Places a relevant product on the EU market for the first time, or exports it from the EU. Collects all Article 9 information, including plot geolocation Runs the Article 10 risk assessment Applies Article 11 mitigation until risk is negligible Files the due-diligence statement before the goods move Assumes legal responsibility for the product's compliance
• Trader Makes a relevant product available on the market at any later stage. Large traders: essentially operator-level obligations, including filing statements Micro and small traders: collect and keep records, who supplied you, who you supplied, and the reference numbers of the statements already filed Keep records for five years Pass reference numbers downstream on request

Are you the first to bring this product into the EU market? If you import from outside the EU, you are almost certainly an operator. If you export a relevant product out of the EU, you are also an operator for that consignment.

Are you buying something already inside the EU that has a statement against it? Then you are a trader, or a downstream operator, if you have changed the product enough to create a new one.

Are you a large company? If so, the trader distinction gives you very little relief. The lighter regime is for micro and small traders only.

The HS-code rule, and the roaster question

This is where processors get caught. If you buy a relevant product that already has a due-diligence statement, process it, and place the result on the market, whether you need a new statement depends on whether you have made a new relevant product.

The practical proxy is the customs classification, and it turns on the first four digits. Roasting green coffee keeps it inside heading 0901, so a roaster buying EU-placed green coffee is a trader, not a downstream operator. The 5th FAQ works this exact example and reaches that answer, because only the first four digits are what Annex I lists. Turning that coffee into an extract moves it to 2101, a different Annex I entry, which is a new relevant product and needs its own statement referencing the upstream one.

The same logic runs through every commodity. Sawing a log (4403 to 4407) creates a new relevant product. Assembling boards into furniture (9403) creates another. Each step that crosses into a different Annex I entry adds a filing obligation, even though the underlying plot data has not changed.

Downstream does not mean exempt. Referencing an upstream statement is not a formality. A downstream operator must ascertain that due diligence was actually exercised upstream. You inherit the reference number, and with it the exposure if the original work was inadequate. "My supplier gave me a number" is not a defence if the number sits on a statement built from invented coordinates.

Size, and why it matters less than people hope

Micro and small companies get two forms of relief: a later application date of 30 June 2027, and a lighter regime if they are traders. Neither is as generous as it first appears.

• Small operators get the later date, not lighter obligations. If you are an operator, you run full due diligence. You just start eighteen months later. The May 2026 package added genuine simplification for micro and small primary operators, particularly in low-risk countries, but that is a narrower category than "small company".
• Size is per legal entity, not per group. The 5th FAQ is explicit that the figures of the individual legal entity, not the group as a whole, decide. A small subsidiary of a large parent is assessed on its own numbers. See how company size is determined.
• Your customers will not wait. A small supplier to a large buyer faces the December 2026 date commercially regardless of what the law says about June 2027, because the buyer cannot file without your plot data.

Cases that come up constantly

Three mistakes worth avoiding

• Assuming one role for the whole business. Role is assessed per product and per transaction. A company can be an operator on its imports and a trader on its domestic purchases in the same afternoon.
• Assuming EU origin means out of scope. Domestic timber, EU-reared cattle and European soya are all covered. Low-risk benchmarking usually reduces the work to information collection, but it does not remove the obligation or the geolocation requirement.
• Assuming a certificate settles it. Certification schemes can supply evidence that feeds your risk assessment. They do not transfer responsibility, and no scheme discharges the geolocation requirement on its own.

Related

• Which application date applies to you
• Filing a due-diligence statement
• Country benchmarking and simplified due diligence